RATIONALE: When students are learning to
read, they are spending the majority of their brainpower on
decoding.
After decoding skills have been gained, students need to concentrate on
reading the text for comprehension and meaning. The basic
equation
for reading is Reading = Decoding * Comprehension. Now that
children
have acquired the necessary decoding skills, they need to learn some
comprehension
strategies.

MATERIALS:

· Paragraph One: (copy for each
student)
Mammals live almost everywhere. Such mammals as monkeys and elephants
dwell
in tropical regions. Arctic foxes, polar bears, and many other mammals
make their home in Polar Regions. Such mammals as camels and kangaroo
rats
live in deserts. Certain others, including seals and whales, swim in
the
oceans.· Paragraph Two: (copy for each student)Animals use their tails in many ways. The tails of frogs serve to
move
them and to steer them. Squirrels use their tails to keep their balance
when they are leaping and climbing. Woodpeckers prop themselves up with
their tails. Opossums grasp things with their tails.· chalkboard, chalk· blank map for each student ­ center
circle with 4 spokes coming off of it and a square at the end of each
spoke· pencil for each student· overhead copy of Paragraph One, overhead
pens to model how to figure out the main idea and details

PROCEDURES:

1. Introduce the lesson by recalling the
importance
of reading fluently and reviewing the correct and incorrect ways to
read
by modeling a passage (read once slowly and choppy, read second time
with
expression and smoothly).

2. "Sometimes when we are reading our science
and
history books it is hard to figure out what the author is trying to
teach
us. Usually, when an author writes something they are trying to get us
to learn one specific thing, and they give us a bunch of details about
that certain thing so we can understand it better. Today we are
going
to learn a way to get better at remembering what we’re reading, and we
are going to call it “mapping.”"

3. On board, draw a circle with “main idea”
written
inside it. Then draw 4 spokes off the circle with squares at the
end, and “details” written inside each square. "This is what our
map is going to look like. It will help us to figure out what the
important idea in our reading is, and then we can fill in some of the
important
details about it."

4. "I’m going to give you each a paragraph to
read,
and then we’ll work on a map together. While you’re reading, be
thinking
about what the main idea is the author is trying to get you to
learn."
Give each student a copy of paragraph #1 and give students time to read
the paragraph silently. While students are reading, erase the
“main
idea” and “details” inside the shapes on the board, and prepare to fill
in the blanks with information from the paragraph. Put the
overhead
copy of the paragraph on the projector and, while explaining the
main idea and details, use the pens to underline/mark what you are
talking
about. "This author gave us lots of little details to help us
understand
his point. Let’s start by talking about what the main idea might
be. We know that the main idea is a pretty big topic, and we also
know that the rest of the information in the paragraph will be about
that
topic. Let’s test some main ideas out. Do you think the
main
idea is that arctic foxes live in Polar Regions? I don’t think
so,
because the author tells us that camels live in the desert, and that
does
not help us to understand that foxes live in Polar Regions. What
are both of these details about?" (where mammals live)
"Let’s
test “where mammals live” as our topic sentence." Ask questions
to
guide students to realize that all of the details relate to “where
mammals
live.” "Okay, we know our main idea is “where mammals live,” so
we’ll
write that in our center circle. Now we need to fill in the rest
of the squares with the other details from the paragraph. The
paragraph
talks about 4 places where mammals might live. Let’s put those
places,
and the animals that live there, in each of the squares around the
circle."

5. "Now I’m going to give you each a second
paragraph
and a chart with a map drawn on it, and I want you to try mapping on
your
own." Hand each student a copy of Paragraph #2 and a blank
map.
Walk around the classroom and help students if needed.